Patentable/Patents/US-10848305
US-10848305

Key generation information trees

PublishedNovember 24, 2020
Assigneenot available in USPTO data we have
Inventorsnot available in USPTO data we have
Technical Abstract

An example non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to receive a request for data. The instructions also cause the processor to determine a region containing the data based on the metadata. The instructions cause the processor to traverse a tree in the metadata to determine key generation information relating a decryption key for the region to a root key.

Patent Claims
11 claims

Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.

1

1. A method, comprising: determining a computing device comprising a memory on a system on a chip (SOC) and a computer-readable medium is being booted for a first time; generating a system key to encrypt a region of the computer-readable medium containing system data and a user key to encrypt a region of the computer-readable medium containing user data; and storing information for generating the system key in a first branch of a tree on the computer-readable medium and information for generating the user key in a second branch of the tree different from the first branch, wherein the computer-readable medium includes an unencrypted metadata region to store the tree and to indicate locations of a plurality of regions of the computer-readable medium, wherein the unencrypted metadata region is signed by a platform key, wherein the platform key is derivable from key generation information obtained from the tree and a root key stored in the memory on the SOC.

2

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the system key comprises generating a migratable key based on the root key, generating a master system key based on the migratable key, and generating the system key based on the master system key.

3

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising storing information for generating the migratable key from the root key in the tree as a child of a root node and information for generating the master system key from the migratable key as a grandchild of the root node beneath the child.

4

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the user key comprises generating the user key based on a user-configured passphrase.

5

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: generating a volatile key to encrypt a region of the computer-readable medium containing transient data; determining the computing device is entering a sleep state; and storing information for generating the volatile key in a third branch of the tree.

6

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: storing the root key.

7

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising: receiving a request for the system data; determining a first region of the plurality of regions of the computer-readable medium containing the system data based on the unencrypted metadata region; and traversing the tree in the unencrypted metadata region to determine key generation information relating a decryption key for the first region to the root key.

8

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: retrieving the key generation information for the first of the plurality of regions of the computer-readable medium from the tree; generating the decryption key for the first region based on the root key and the key generation information; and decrypting the system data from the region using the decryption key.

9

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the key generation information includes an encrypted copy of the decryption key.

10

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the decryption key is stored in a volatile buffer.

11

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the key generation information includes a random number to compute the decryption key for the system data from the root key.

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Patent Metadata

Filing Date

March 21, 2016

Publication Date

November 24, 2020

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Cite as: Patentable. “Key generation information trees” (US-10848305). https://patentable.app/patents/US-10848305

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